Apple has made a ‘rare’ slip. The M2 based iPad Air, which was previously advertised to have a 10-core GPU, in fact has only nine cores. What this means is that the new sixth-generation iPad Air has a slightly less powerful GPU compared to what was advertised at launch.
Apple has silently updated the iPad Air 2024 spec-sheet on its official website. It now boasts of an M2 chip with a 9-core GPU, one core short of what was quoted before. Interestingly, the newsroom post marking the announcement remains unchanged at the time of writing. It still mentions that the iPad Air has a 10-core GPU.
In the case of the seventh-generation M4 powered iPad Pro, Apple offers the top-end 1TB and 2TB models with a 10-core GPU while the 256GB and 512GB models have a watered-down 9-core setup. No such distinction exists on the iPad Air though. Regardless of whether you get the 11- or 13-inch version, with any amount of storage (128GB/256GB/512GB/1TB), you’re getting a 9-core GPU. All models come with 8GB RAM by default.
Contrary to the iPad Pro, the iPad Air is what you can call an incremental update to its predecessor, although Apple did increase the number of options by introducing a new 13-inch version in this generation for those who might need more screen real estate. It also made the iPad Air compatible with the new Apple Pencil Pro which brings notable upgrades including haptic feedback and location tracking.
We’re not sure how Apple let this one critical detail slip. But the new iPad launch in 2024 has been riddled with controversy. Earlier, Apple’s “crush” commercial for the iPad Pro came under the scanner for putting creative instruments through an industrial press, for which Apple had to come forward and apologise as well. The ad was never aired on TV as previously intended. Apple did try and lessen the blow by releasing another ad recently, which was a bit more creator-friendly. As for the tech-spec update, only time will tell how the general public takes it.
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